Tag: superzeroes

Marge

~ cjaworks ~ Leave a comment

[A very cool unnamed person], better known online simply as Marge, was the picture of success. She was in her last semester of a computer science degree at [A college bigger and better than yours], and was set to graduate at the top of her class. She’d already completed an internship, and had a job lined up for after she graduated. All of that was in the past, though. In her last semester, she lost any and all motivation to carry on. 

It was all just so inane. Everything she’d studied for the past semester and a half, she either already knew, or saw it as an absolute waste of time. Nobody in her class seemed to work even half as hard as her, and not one of her professors had an ounce of respect for her. She made the easy decision, and simply stopped leaving her apartment. Sure, she’d run out of rent one day, but for once in her entire life she wanted to have some time for herself.

So she set out to rot. She knew it was bad for her, and that she was squandering all of her hard work, but that didn’t matter. 

That night, she slouched at her desk, and let the blue tinted light wash over her, as she blasted meaningless information and hot takes into her brain. It was just easier this way. She saw a post about someone hacking [Some fascist fuckwit]’s [Hellsite account] to challenge [Some neolib asshole] to a duel. She chuckled at the thought, and considered how hard it would be for her to pull something like that. She didn’t think it could possibly be that hard, but as she started to open up a new page, she felt her motivation slipping away from her. Thirty minutes later, she found herself at the bottom of her feed.

She debated going to bed, and leaned back, staring up at the ceiling. 

“Surely anything would be better than this…” She sighed, talking out loud to herself. “When’s the last time I spoke to another human in the meatspace, that wasn’t paid to bring me food?”

She thought for a moment, and it was probably when [Some fake that never cared about me anyways] came to check to make sure she wasn’t dead [Probably couldn’t pass without me]. After all, who would do all the assignments first if it wasn’t her.

As she thought this, she noticed a bright light from the corner of her eye. She let out a scream, as she felt electric current running through her body. Everything went… Green?

Marge found herself standing in the middle of a busy square, wearing street clothes. It was night, but there were still a lot of people around. This was a real city, with giant buildings towering as far as she could see. She looked around at the people, but as she did, they went out of focus. Her head went fuzzy, but she began to see through each of the people. Every one of them was performing a task. One was checking to see if a light was on, one was informing an air conditioner to turn on, and another was carrying a file.

Simultaneously, Marge felt a surge of information rushing through her. Countless numbers and strings of code entered and exited her brain in the span of a single second. She felt like the city she was seeing was not quite an illusion, but something closer to a construction of her mind. 

With a lurking feeling of dread, she looked to a large building in front of her. With a thought, the side was replaced with a text box with her blog’s username, ‘MargaretThatcherisinHell’, and avatar, depicting her username, at the top. She watched the words appear, as they entered her mind.

Oh shit I think I just got isekaied into the world wide web… 

With another thought, she posted it.

Instantaneously, a person appeared in front of her, holding a manila envelope, and took off running. Without a thought, she chased after him.

He didn’t appear to be particularly affected by her following him, and proceeded through a series of alleys, eventually taking a set of stairs down into a subway. Marge [Like a badass] followed him down, and watched as he stepped towards a train, pausing to let the exiting passengers off. Each of the exiting passengers also carried a file, and their contents flashed through her mind. More shitposts and hot takes. 

“Oh shit I actually got isekaied to the internet…” She muttered to herself, remarking that she could actually hear herself speak like usual.

Without time to think, she saw the man sprint onto the train, and hopped on [Again, like a badass] after him right before the doors closed. The cabin lurched, then began to pick up speed, eventually hitting what must’ve been hundreds of miles per hour. Out the window, she saw the ocean, as far as the eye could see. It was actually a little bit difficult to tell how fast they were going with no frame of reference, but it was faster than any train she’d ever been on.

On the horizon, another train appeared, identical to the train she was on. It grew closer and closer, until she eventually figured out it was headed directly towards her cabin. She had time to gasp and brace herself [Not like you would’ve done anything cooler], but nothing happened. She opened an eye, and saw that several people had appeared in the train car. This happened a few more times before they reached their destination, each time bringing new passengers, until the car was full.

In a few moments, the window’s scenery was suddenly replaced with that of a giant building. There was another train across from the platform, with a series of steel depositories lining it. Both the platform and the train seemed to go on as far as she could see, with repeating depositories along the way. 

All the passengers stepped out of the train, and formed a queue in front of the box. The guy that she followed here placed the envelope in the depository, and suddenly vanished. On the other side of the depository, hundreds of identical copies of him appeared on one spot, then ran at full speed in different directions. Each passenger on the train did the same. She was somehow actually inside of [Yes it’s that website, shut up].

This was unreal, but she didn’t have time to marvel. She didn’t particularly want to get lost. If she understood this correctly, this was her post going to her followers. If she was right, she could find a mutual, and find her way back to what must’ve been her computer.

Then a thought occurred to her. If she was somehow in the internet, then it didn’t particularly matter if she found her way back. She could discern the mission of everyone here, so she could find her way anywhere. 

“Maybe this was the motivation I needed.” She said with a smile.

[Fixed your post! Too many personal details ahaha,,, ❤ Marge]

Hope you enjoyed! For those of you that don’t know, this site is home to my web serial Earth 2, which follows a group of superheroes (uploads every Friday at noon), and my music.

If you want to support me, the best way to do that right now is to buy or stream my album! Have a great day, and I hope you stick around.

(Art credit: Original)

Cait

~ cjaworks ~ Leave a comment

Foreword to the foreword: This isn’t porn, nor was the original novel idea ever going to be porn. I don’t think I realized the possible connection that might’ve been drawn there. I didn’t really specify in the original foreword.

I’ve been enjoying the foreword lately, so I thought I’d keep going with that. I’ve finally started writing season 3 again, and I’m approximately two thirds of the way done at the time I’m writing this, so I should hopefully have the draft done in a couple of weeks, barring further unexpected events. I honestly thought I was out of hiatus content, but I was looking and found this piece. A quick note, barring extremely unexpected events, I will keep posting every friday until I finish season 3. This will ideally make me finish it quicker, and not lose any statistical momentum my blog may have.

This is the first chapter of a potential longer work, which at its current point, is just a gender swap short story. I worked on it for a bit when I had ambitions of writing a novel over the summer, and put it on hold when the outline got a little bit *weird*. I feel like I don’t need to give any insight to what this might say about myself, especially if you’re coming here from twitter. I’ll let you puzzle that one out.

In all likelihood, this project will remain abandoned (unless you guys just love it I guess), but it was fun to outline. I’ve still yet to write a proper novel, but this is not the only novel I’ve ever embarked to write. I’ve started to write three, other than this, one which was the original story that I called superzeroes, which got scrapped for being overly edgy garbage that, no matter how hard I tried to fix my original concept, glorified an awful abusive relationship, and made the abuser look cool.

Another is a project I called ‘Fletching’, which basically explored the concept of superheroes in a world where they lost. If you’ve ever read old man logan, it was a similar idea, but nobody knew what happened, and it didn’t take place in an established world, so the reader would figure it out over time. That one got scrapped about halfway in, as it was an exercise in writing without an outline, and went poorly. If I find a ridiculous reserve of energy, I may return one day to fix it. I would’ve actually already uploaded that first chapter if it weren’t for the fact that the intro to the story was easily the worst part of it that I’d written, and I could never be bothered to fix it.

The last novel I’ve started was an origin story for Adara, which would’ve explained some of the backstory of her and Jean. I wound up scrapping it due to me being woefully underqualified to write a Muslim character. That’s actually one of my regrets about the character, if I’m honest. I didn’t explore enough of her actual heritage, and instead based it off of my western understanding. I think a lot of the story involving the monastery (and events yet to come), as well as hidden mechanics of magic, could’ve been a lot cooler if I’d looked more into that.

Anyways, I should be putting these words into season 3 right now, so I’ll quit rambling. Here is chapter one (likely never to be followed up on) of ‘Cait’.

(photo credit: Pexel’s free photos)

A blaring alarm pulled John out of his sleep. He got out of bed, and slammed his knee into some piece of furniture. He couldn’t quite tell what it was, as it was too dark to see. He eventually groped his way around the room until he turned off the alarm. This was when he noticed something off. Firstly, it was Saturday, and he hadn’t set an alarm. Secondly, this was not his alarm clock. His heart was racing now, and he felt his way around the room until he found a light switch.

He flipped it on and looked around the room. Definitely not his. None of this was his. It was definitely a girls room, judging by the clothes he could see. The furniture wasn’t overly feminine. The walls were blue and most of the furniture was wood grain patterned. He could’ve sworn he went to bed in his own house.

Another thing he noticed was that the furniture was strangely big, and the ceiling unusually high. He realized at this point, that the furniture was not in fact shorter, he was. More accurately, he was not him anymore, he was in the body of a girl. He could feel long hair draping over his shoulders. His heart felt like it was about to burst. He took a deep breath. He could panic about this later, for now, he needed to figure out exactly what had happened.

The first question was what kind of scenario this was. Was he still himself, just as a girl, or had he transferred into another person’s body. Another concern was if whoever’s body this was, was in his body. That could be worked out later. He scanned the room and saw an iPhone plugged into its charger. He ran over, and thanked Steve Jobs for face-id.

First he went for the address book, and found not a single name that he recognized. He checked the ‘Mom’ contact, and saw it had a different phone number.

That was that, he had to be in someone else’s body. Logically that meant that they were in his. He was about to call his phone number, when he saw the time. It wasn’t even 8 AM yet, and he usually slept with his phone in the other room, so he wouldn’t be able to reach himself until later.

Next, he went for Facebook. Evidently this person’s name was Cait Wallace. She was 17, and went to North Elk high school, which was the same place John had gone. After a bit of scrolling through everything he could find on her phone, he found that Cait didn’t do too much of anything. She went to school, and watched a lot of netflix. She seemed to be in upper level classes, so that was something, but other than that she didn’t do anything. She had a couple of friends, Ashley and Erin. She texted them quite a bit, but nobody other than that.

The next question was why was a high schooler getting up this early on a Saturday. He checked the calendar, and there wasn’t anything there. He figured there was nothing else to do but ask. It sounded like someone else was up.

He opened the door as quietly as he could, since he was about to blunder around the house like he didn’t know where anything was, and that would likely raise suspicions. He managed to find a bathroom and two other bedrooms, before he found himself in what looked to be the den. In the kitchen, he saw two people he assumed to be Cait’s parents, and Cait’s younger brother, Josh. Cait’s dad was drinking coffee at the table, and her mom was cooking something. Cait’s brother was on the couch watching TV. All of them were still in their pajamas.

“Morning, Cait!” The man looked up from his phone. “You got any plans today?”

John swore silently. He had hoped that he could glean that from them, but Cait’s dad had to go and ask him that immediately. “I feel like there’s something I’m supposed to do, but I can’t quite remember. Do any of you know?”

“Cait? doing something on a Saturday?” The brother laughed.

“There’s not anything that I know of.” Cait’s mom replied. “Is it something with Erin or Ashley?”

“No, I don’t think so…” John shook his head. “Weird.”

He needed to act cool about this. He had briefly considered honesty, but there was a significant enough chance that he got locked in a mental ward or stuck in a lab, that he decided that wasn’t the best approach. These parents seemed like nice enough people, but that was too big of a chance.

He began to move back towards Cait’s room, but her mom called after him.

“Hey, Cait. Breakfast is almost ready, so don’t go far!”

“Okay!” John replied.

It was definitely weird hearing someone else’s voice coming out of his mouth. Then again, this wasn’t really his mouth, was it? Everything else about this was weird too, but he needed to figure out what to do from here. There weren’t going to be any impending crises, so that gave him some flex time, but he still needed to work something out. He’d call his phone, to see if someone is in his body, and if they could help him out. For now, he would eat breakfast, and hide away in Cait’s room for as long as possible.

A thought occurred to him, he wondered if Cait had a car. He looked around the room, and found a purse. He dug through it for a little bit, and eventually found a car key. That would definitely make things easier.

He heard a door open.

“Planning on going somewhere?” Cait’s dad asked.

“Oh, no.” John laughed a little. “Just couldn’t remember where I put it.” He stuffed the car key back into the purse.

A Small Caveat

~ cjaworks ~ Leave a comment

This is a continuation of a one-off that can be found here.

Caveat paced down a dark street in St. Louis. He had to do most of his moving around at night, due to the horns and red skin. He used to be afraid of places like this, but really he’d been in much worse situations than this in the last year. Besides, today he had a goal that was too good to pass up, despite the sketchiness of the source. It had definitely been disconcerting to start hearing voices, but in the end he still listened to it.

He finally reached the point he’d been told about. It was a narrow alley, between a couple of office buildings. The alley itself became progressively more filled with trash the further back you went. His heart was racing, but he didn’t care.

He looked down at his watch. It was almost time, according to the voice.

He wondered what kind of power he’d come across. He’d been told that it would make a lot of his issues much easier to deal with, and that it wouldn’t be hard to bargain with the guy. That meant that it was most likely a curse to whoever had it, but it would somehow be helpful to him. That ruled out all of the more obvious powers, since they were usually without major drawbacks.

The second hand hit 15 on his watch, and Caveat sighed. He didn’t see anyone, but he didn’t come all this way for nothing.

“Hello there. I believe you could do with my assistance.” He spoke out into the night, in no particular direction.

He felt something gripping his shirt, and noticed a filthy looking man with a long beard and longer hair standing in front of him. He looked like he was about to cry.

“You… You can see me?”

“Well, now I can.” He lifted the man’s hands off of his shirt.

The man released him, and stumbled backwards. He began to cackle for a moment, then looked back up. Looking at him was actually a little difficult. Not just for his pitiful appearance, but he was literally blurry. “You’ve gotta help me, man.”

“You’re not even mildly dissuaded by the fact that I look like the devil?” He gestured to his horns.

The man laughed and broke into a coughing fit. “I haven’t spoken to another human in a year. Sure I started with praying to god, but it didn’t take long for me to start trying for you instead.”

Caveat nodded in surprise. This man truly was desperate. “Alright, then. What seems to be the problem?” He leaned up against a clean patch of the alley wall.

“I just woke up one day, and everyone was ignoring me.” He looked down and wiped his eyes. “I had a wife and kid. At first I thought it was some kind of joke, or maybe I’d done something to make them mad, so I just went into work. Everyone there ignored me too. Things went on like that for weeks before I couldn’t take it anymore and left. I started making money by robbing places, since they just ignored me when I walked into the back. You’ve gotta get rid of this curse, man. I’ll do anything!”

Caveat felt a smile creeping across his face. “Anything?”

“Anything.” The man nodded fervently.

He had to think quickly here. He’d been expecting to give this guy something for his power, but now he was going to get something in return for taking it. The first thing to consider was if he actually wanted this power. It seemed like the man could get peoples attention if the stars aligned, and not being noticed would certainly be a boon for him. It wasn’t like he had anything to lose. Secondly, he had to consider what to ask for in return. He already had enough fake identities, so he didn’t need that.

“Tell me, where did you work before all of this? What did you do?”

“I did security for a tech company. Syngenuity. I worked in one of their warehouses.”

“Alright.” Caveat nodded. A favor from a security guard could definitely be useful. “Alright, then. I will take this curse from you, but there’s a caveat. You have to return to work at the same place, and you will owe me one favor to be redeemed at a later date.” He held out his hand.

“That’s it? Deal!” The man fervently shook Caveat’s hand.

A green light swirled around them, and the man stopped being blurry. Caveat handed the man a piece of paper with a phone number scrawled on it.

“Contact me when you get settled again.”

“Yes, thank you!” The man nodded excitedly, and ran out of the alley.

Caveat smiled. Another good deed done. He walked out of the alley with his hood off. He walked past several people, and none of them appeared to pay him any mind. Out of curiosity, he waited until he found a man walking alone, and tapped him on the shoulder.

The man turned around for a moment. “Get lost asshole.” He continued walking, then stopped and did a double take. “Holy shit…” The man broke into a sprint and ran away.

Caveat smiled. This would work nicely.

This is the last bit of a short arc with Caveat during the hiatus, so I hope you enjoyed!

I am currently making good use of the hiatus, studying, dealing with some personal things, and doing another project, but don’t worry, after I’m done studying, I’ll be able to finish Season 3! I’m still plenty well on track for a March release.

(Photo credit: Pexels Free Photos)

Always a Caveat

~ cjaworks ~ Leave a comment

This is a continuation of a one-off that can be found here.

It was a rough time to be a nobody. Particularly a nobody that had been a lawyer up until a month ago. Sure they’d not been particularly successful, but it objectively beat cowering under a bridge on a rainy night. Alone and cold, they watched the downfall in silence.

It was truly one of the dumber things they’d done in their life. ‘Don’t make a deal with the devil’ is the kind of wisdom passed down to children at a young age and reinforced throughout life. It was surprisingly hard to turn down though, when one considers that they had little anyways, or at least they thought they did. This new form didn’t seem to possess any kind of powers, and he hadn’t been able to approach anyone to make a deal, due to his grotesque appearance. It appears that everyone except for them had some amount of common sense.

Caveat.

Yes there was always a caveat. They sighed as their stomach growled. They felt a little bit of light headedness coming on, likely do to exhaustion and starvation. The one upside of the rain is that they didn’t have to worry about dying of dehydration tonight, so that was nice. On the other hand, perhaps continuing this existence wasn’t actually an upside anymore.

Caveat.

“I already learned my lesson!” They shouted to no one in particular.

Caveat!

It was at this point that they realized that this was not, in fact, their thoughts. Someone was shouting now. They looked around, panicked, but couldn’t see anyone. They’d definitely heard someone, and it sounded like they were under the bridge. They hid their face for good measure.

Is this where you want to end your story?

“What?” They looked up again, but still couldn’t see anyone. “I don’t have a choice! I was tricked!”

Was that not your business?

“Yeah, yeah, yeah! I was a con artist, so now I’ve gone to hell! Fuck off!” They stopped hiding their face and clambered to their feet. There was still nobody there, but they were content to shout at another nobody.

So you think you deserve this? Are you happy with your trade?

“Who do you think you are?” They began flailing their limbs in the general direction of the voice. “Of course I deserve this! I’m a shitty person! You reap what you sow, isn’t that what you said in your book?”

If you deserve this, then perhaps you should consider the actuality of your position.

“What are you talking about?” They stumbled back against the wall. “I’m hearing voices now…” They shook their head and sighed.

Do you believe they were lying about the deal? You have the power, do you not?

“How am I supposed to know?” They shouted. “What good is a power making deals if nobody will talk to you?”

When the devil made a deal with you, what kind of person were you?

They thought for a moment. “Sad… Desperate… Stupid…”

Is that not what you specialized in dealing with?

“Yeah, I know.” They were no longer shouting, resigned to have a therapy session with another nobody. “That’s what my job was.”

Then why have you stopped?

“What…? I just told you, nobody in their right mind would talk to me.”

Then find nobody in their right mind. You were not the only desperate person on the planet.

“But… Should I go back to scamming people? I think that’s what got me into hell in the first place.”

Why would you necessarily have to scam? Can you not help someone with absolute power?

“That was what he said, huh…” They thought for a moment. “Absolute power, I have to make a deal.”

Is there nobody in the world with something that could help you?

“I… I just don’t know where to look…” They shook their head.

Would you like my help, Caveat?

They’d been fooled once, but never again. This sounded too good to be true. “What’s the caveat?”

I will need you to help some people, somewhere down the line.

“Good people?” They were wary of trusting whatever this entity was.

What is ‘good’? Why does a person need to be good to receive help?

“I… guess not?” They weren’t good themselves, after all, and they still wanted help.

Do we have a deal then, Caveat?

“Why do you keep calling me that?”

That is your name, is it not? There must always be a Caveat.

Caveat’s head began to spin. No longer would he be a nobody. He never was. He was Caveat. A smile began to creep across his face.

“We have a deal.”

Now, listen to what I say, and pay close attention…

I’m doing a little bit of a short arc with Caveat during the hiatus, so I hope you enjoy! It’ll be just this part and the next, unless I decide to write more.

I am currently making good use of the hiatus, studying, dealing with some personal things, and doing another project, but don’t worry, after I’m done studying, I’ll be able to finish Season 3!

(Photo credit: Pexels Free Photos)

The Siren

~ cjaworks ~ Leave a comment

Jeremy Wells walked leisurely up a street in downtown Nashville. The sun beat down on him, but his hat kept him cool enough. A gentle breeze blew, and caught the tassels of his shirt. He’d only lived here for a few years, but they’d been wild. He came here as a country singing hopeful, and just so happened to be the luckiest man alive.

He looked down at his phone, and confirmed he was in the right place. He stepped up to the automatic doors, and walked into the cool air conditioned lobby of Nashville People’s Bank. No receptionist greeted him, but he’d expected that.

“Get on the ground, cowboy!” A man shouted. He was big and wielded a shotgun. It was enough to spook even Jeremy for a second.

“Settle down.” Jeremy paced forward, as the man slowly lowered his gun. He glanced around the room and saw many people now calmly sitting and looking at him. He had to be careful about what he said next. “Now put down all the guns you have on your person.”

The man obliged, and gently laid his gun down on the floor. Out of the corner of his eye, Jeremy saw a civilian laying his pistol on the ground.

Jeremy motioned the man towards him, and whispered in his ear, “Tell me how many more robbers are here.”

“Just my brother.” The man nodded.

“Tell me where he’s at, will ya?” He whispered.

“Oh he’s in the vault behind the counter with the bank manager.”

“Alright.” He turned back to the rest of the room, and called so everybody could hear. “Everyone stay where you are, and don’t move.” He started to walk behind the counter, but caught himself. “Except to blink and breathe. No moving except blinking, breathing, and other automated bodily functions.”

He turned his attention to the open door behind the counter. He positioned himself right next to it, and took a deep breath. After a moment, he pivoted and entered the room. Inside there were two men, one in a suit that looked quite frightened, and one holding a gun. They both turned, as Jeremy entered the room, and the one with the gun started to shout something, but Jeremy cut him off.

“Calm down, and put your gun on the ground.” Jeremy shouted.

The robber nodded, and gently placed his gun on the ground. The man in the suit no longer looked afraid.

Jeremy took a few steps forward and leaned in to whisper to the man with the gun. “Now, go stand by your brother in the lobby.”

Both men nodded, and went out of the room. Jeremy groaned. At least that command wasn’t too bad. He followed them out of the vault room, and saw the manager go stand by a man who did, now that he thought about it, look remarkably similar. He walked past the manager, and went up to the two robbers. He motioned for both of them to lean in, and started to whisper. “Go turn yourself into the police for this crime, and every other crime you’ve ever committed. Answer every one of their questions with the complete truth.”

Both of the brothers nodded, and left the bank. Jeremy thought for a moment, but couldn’t think of any way that instruction could’ve gone wrong. He turned his attention to the rest of the people in the bank. He needed to set them back to normal, so they could handle whatever paperwork they need to do. He gave one last glance to ensure the brothers were still gone. “Everyone, ignore all instructions I have given you for the last 5 minutes.”

The bank erupted in a frenzy. The civilians began to cheer, and many of them cried. The man with the gun picked it back up, and the manager ran to the phone. After a moment, Jeremy saw nobody seemed to be paying him any particular gratitude. He figured that specifying only commands he had given them would make them still remember, but it was easily fixable. “Everyone, remember that The Siren saved you today!”

The people turned their attention to him, and began to shower him with all the praise and adoration that he had come to expect. He smiled. That was much better. He figured he could probably hang around for a few minutes, but he should probably get out of here before the police got here. He wasn’t a fan of dealing with the police. It was too high pressure, and there were too many chances for him to screw up. They already knew about it anyways, that’s why they called him in. Well, technically they called him in because he instructed them to call him and ask him if he wanted to handle any crime within a few blocks of his apartment, before they sent in anyone else. That one had taken a little bit of thought. It had definitely gotten his public approval ratings up. Not everyone listened to his interviews and press appearances, after all, so he did have to do some actual work.

Hope you enjoyed! If you’re new here, I write a serial, which is currently between seasons, while I work on it and deal with some real life things. I write a lot of, what I consider to be, interesting superhero stories, so if that’s your thing, please give the rest of my stuff a look! I upload every Friday at noon, and plan to continue doing so through the hiatus, if I can.

Image Credit: Pexels Free Photos